In the manufacture of textile products from pattern printed fabrics, problems of properly automatically cutting the fabric with respect to the pattern so that in the desired textile products produced the pattern is centered and/or can be readily matched up, exist. For example, in the manufacture of pillow cases, a roll of fabric slightly more than twice as wide as the pillow case to be made is passed through a folding device which folds one edge of the fabric over the other. From this the folded fabric passes through a hemmer/cutter which trims the two edges evenly and forms a side hem. The fabric then moves to a cutting table where the leading edge of the fabric, or an obvious point of the print design, is detected by a photo cell. The signal from the photo cell then causes the fabric to be stopped at a preset point on the table and after the material has stopped the cutter (positioned a fixed distance away from the photo cell detection point) is automatically activated and cuts the fabric to the correct length. This fabric is then automatically removed from the table and passed through another hemmer/cutter which hems the end of the pillow case, and the pillow case is subsequently inverted to produce the final product.
It has been found in actual practice that photo cell detection of the leading edge or a contrasting spot on the pattern during pillow case manufacture is not sufficient to assure accurate cutting. Oftentimes, the pattern will not be centered on the pillow case panel. This is because the fabric tends to stretch or shrink on the roll and simply cutting a measured length rather than exactly on line with the pattern does not assure accurate placement of the print pattern on the pillow case panel. Also, the operator must constantly monitor the cutting procedure and make adjustments on the fabric drive every several cuts in order to prevent miscutting of the fabric. Also, each time the pattern is changed the operator must go through a set-up procedure to adjust the photo cell for optimum sensing.
Similar problems to those described above exist when cutting fabric automatically into panels for any use, such as cutting fabric into panels having patterns, in which the patterns from the panel must subsequently be matched up to sew them together, as in the production of apparel fabric, for example.
According to the present invention, a method is provided for forming pattern printed textile products which overcomes the pattern positioning problems discussed above. According to the present invention, while a pattern is being printed on the fabric web, in synchronization with the pattern being printed, a magnetic mark is disposed on the fabric web at a known position adjacent the pattern. If desired, a plurality of marks may be provided to define the perimeter for subsequent automatic cutting of fabric panels.
Subsequently, the magnetic mark is detected, and the fabric is cut at a known position with respect to the mark to form a web section with a known position of a pattern thereon. The web section is ultimately formed into the final textile product. For example, when pillow cases are being formed, the same steps as discussed above with respect to the prior art production of pillow cases are practiced, except that since the detection is done of the magnetic mark, the cutting is much more accurate. When the end seam is formed on the pillow case, the magnetic mark may be cut off of the fabric web so that it does not exist in the final product produced.
In the production of apparel fabric, the perimeters of fabric panels to be matched together are defined during disposition of the magnetic marks on the fabric web, and after the fabric panels are matched together and hemmed, the magnetic marks may again be cut off during that procedure.
It is the primary object of the present invention to produce textile products from pattern printed fabrics wherein the products can be produced automatically or semi-automatically with the patterns properly positioned in the final textile product. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.